How Do Coffee and Alcohol Come Together in a Caffe Shakerato?
Caffe Shakerato is a shaken espresso drink from Italy, made by shaking espresso with ice in a cocktail shaker until a dense foam forms. It yields a cold, smooth cup with a rich aroma. The technique comes from bartending, and the drink traces back to late 19th-century Italian cafes that served coffee and alcoholic beverages in the same space.
Three versions are commonly prepared: the classic, a modern take, and James Hoffmann's cream whipper method. Key details include ingredient substitutions and when to add syrup. The name comes from shakerato, meaning shaken, and the drink fits the coffee-by-day, bar-by-night model now common in cafes.
Hot weather makes iced coffee a daily necessity for many people. Besides common options like cold brew, iced pour-over, and iced americano, there is also a fancy coffee that is extremely popular in Italy during summer — Caffè Shakerato, which means "shaken coffee." Its method derives from bartending techniques, using a shaker to shake espresso with ice until a dense foam forms, delivering a refreshingly cold drink with a smooth mouthfeel and rich aroma. In this article, Front Street Coffee will trace the origins of Caffè Shakerato and its connection to the "coffee by day, bar by night" business model, and share three preparation methods: the classic version, the modern version, and James Hoffmann's cream whipper version, along with operational details such as ingredient substitutions and the order of syrup usage, making it easy for coffee lovers to recreate at home.
Recently, among the content published by Front Street Coffee, the proportion related to iced coffee has been noticeably high. After all, in weather hot enough to make people "melt," who can resist a cold, refreshing cup of coffee?
So today Front Street Coffee is once again bringing you a classic iced coffee recipe. Compared to categories like cold brew, pour-over, and americano that can be found in almost every shop, its fame is indeed not that great — it's even somewhat niche. But Front Street Coffee can say responsibly that its flavor and mouthfeel are in no way inferior to any popular iced coffee. It is——
Caffè Shakerato.
"Coffee by day, bar by night" is a business format that has become quite common recently, referring to the same space operating as a café during the day and switching to a bar at night. On the surface it seems quite trendy, but this model actually has precedents. Especially in late 19th-century Italy, establishments selling both coffee and alcoholic beverages could be found everywhere.
That period also happened to be a time of rapid development for Italian coffee culture, so various innovative drinks mixing alcohol and coffee kept emerging. The Caffè Shakerato that Front Street Coffee is introducing today is precisely a fancy coffee created by borrowing bartending techniques, and it is very popular in Italy during summer.
The "Shakerato" in Caffè Shakerato means "shaken" (the past participle of Shaker, "to shake"), and the whole name literally translates to "shaken coffee." Yes, it's exactly the kind of coffee shaken out with a shaker that Front Street Coffee occasionally mentions. It is said that the shaking motion bartenders use when making cocktails inspired baristas, who introduced this step into coffee preparation, giving birth to Caffè Shakerato.
Initially, Caffè Shakerato did not become popular globally until industry leader Starbucks added it to its menu under the name "Iced Shaken Espresso," after which people gradually came to know and accept this method.
The process of making Caffè Shakerato is just as simple as Front Street Coffee has always shared: mix coffee, ice, and other ingredients into a shaker, shake until foam forms, and a delicious "heat-buster" is ready.
Like other iced coffees, Caffè Shakerato tastes very cold. The difference is that, due to the foam and other ingredients, it has a dense mouthfeel, a more balanced and mellow taste, and a richer aroma.
Next, Front Street Coffee will share three different ways to make Caffè Shakerato. You can choose the one that suits you best based on the materials and tools you have on hand.
Classic Version of Caffè Shakerato
The classic version of Caffè Shakerato is quite interesting: it doesn't differ much from the modern version in preparation, but it uses an unassuming yet very distinctive ingredient — saline solution.
Front Street Coffee previously shared in the article "A 'Saucy' Trick That Can Improve and Enhance Coffee Flavor": properly introducing saltiness can create a sweetness-enhancing effect in coffee. The classic version of Caffè Shakerato uses exactly this principle, adding saline solution to bring the coffee a kind of "sweetness" different from the usual.
Back to the overall recipe, the ingredients needed are simple: a double shot of espresso (40ml), an appropriate amount of ice (100g), an appropriate amount of granulated sugar or syrup (5g), and the aforementioned saline solution (2 drops) (salt works too, just a tiny bit is enough).
The espresso extraction parameters used here at Front Street Coffee are: 20g of grounds extracted into 40ml of coffee liquid within 30 seconds.
There's nothing particularly special to say about the preparation — prepare the ingredients, pour them into a shaker, shake until dense foam forms, pour out, and enjoy.
But note that whether you use syrup or granulated sugar will affect the order of operations. If using granulated sugar, you need to pour the sugar into the cup that will catch the espresso before extraction, so that the hot coffee liquid just extracted melts the sugar in advance. Otherwise, after shaking, the granulated sugar may easily not fully dissolve. If using syrup, there's no need to be so particular — after the espresso is extracted, just pour it together with the syrup into the shaker.
Since Front Street Coffee uses the Warm Sun blend, this cup of Caffè Shakerato not only has all the advantages mentioned above, but also delivers very prominent vanilla cream and whiskey notes — a rather impressive performance.
Modern Version of Caffè Shakerato
The modern version of Caffè Shakerato, as mentioned earlier, differs little from the classic version. It simply no longer adds saline solution, and replaces the syrup with various flavored syrups such as vanilla or hazelnut, with all other steps completely identical.
The addition of flavored syrup makes the coffee's flavor layers richer and also easier to accept and drink. The modern version of Caffè Shakerato has a higher sugar content, with 40ml of double espresso paired with 10ml of syrup. If you can't handle much sweetness, it's best to halve the syrup amount.
James Hoffmann's Caffè Shakerato
Finally, here's a distinctive method shared by coffee guru James Hoffmann. The main reason Caffè Shakerato is rarely seen on café menus today is that it's too troublesome to make: you have to put the ingredients into a shaker and shake continuously until foam forms.
This takes up a lot of the barista's time and is not friendly to shops with high output. So James Hoffmann came up with using a cream whipper to solve this problem.
(Screenshot from James Hoffmann's video)
Simply pour the prepared ingredients into a cream whipper, charge with nitrogen, shake to combine, and the cream whipper will whip up a Caffè Shakerato with dense foam on its own. Although it loses the soul of the "shaker," it must be said that using a cream whipper is indeed more convenient.
Because it can not only make a Caffè Shakerato more simply and quickly, but also prepare multiple servings at once. For coffee shops with high output, this is arguably a better solution.
(Screenshot from James Hoffmann's video)
The above are three different ways to make Caffè Shakerato. Those interested can try them at home. Finally, two reminders: first, the method provided by James Hoffmann is explained in more detail in his video, so those who want to try the cream whipper method can go to his video for a deeper look; second, Front Street Coffee's shops do not serve this one, haha.
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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
